NCU weekend cricket summary

Johnny Morton

Published:14:47Sunday 02 September 2018

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Templepatrick sealed a dream season when they were crowned Section Two champions on Saturday, bringing their trophy tally for 2018 to three after Twenty20 Shield and Junior Cup success earlier in the campaign.

Ross Bryans’ side won all 14 of their league matches to collect a maximum 56 points, proving they were the best side in the league by a distance.

It rounds off what has been a fantastic year for the whole club, with their 2nds promoted from Junior League 4 - currently sitting top with 12 wins in as many games.

Their IIIs and IVs have a chance of promotion from Junior League 7 and Junior League 8 respectively, while the youth has also thrived, with the U-15s and U-13s winning their leagues.

Ballymena will be the other team going up from Section Two after piping Cliftonville Academy to second spot on run-rate.

Cliftonville had won their opening 10 games before losing to Templepatrick, and Saturday’s five run loss to BISC combined with Ballymena’s eight wicket win over the Belfast SuperKings was enough to see them cruelly miss out.

Ballymena won their last six games in a row to bring their points tally to 48, and with a superior run-rate, they will now go up with Templepatrick.

In Section One, it is all still to play for as Lisburn and Holywood battle it out for promotion to the Premier League.

Lisburn are in pole position currently, sitting top by four points with only one match left to play, but any slip-up could allow Holywood to get in ahead of them due to a better run-rate.